CHAPTER III.-1
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EDUCATION It is now sixty-five years since Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe khat he had made his way through Laura Bridgmans fio her intelligehe names of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller will always be liogether, and it is necessary to uand what Dr. Howe did for his pupil before one es to an at of Miss Sullivans work. For Dr. Howe is the great pioneer on whose work that of Miss Sullivan and other teachers of the deaf-blind immediately depends.Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe was born in Boston, November 10, 1801, and died in Boston, January 9, 1876. He was a great philanthropist, ied especially in the education of all defectives, the feeble-mihe blind, and the deaf. Far in advance of his time he advocated many public measures for the relief of the poor and the diseased, for which he was laughed at then, but which have since been put into practice. As head of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, he heard of Laura Bridgman and had her brought to the Institution on October 4, 1837.
Laura Bridgman was born at Hanover, Neshire, December 21, 1829; so she was almost eight years old when Dr. Howe began his experiments with her. At the age of twenty-six months scarlet fever left her without sight or hearing. She also lost her sense of smell and taste. Dr. Howe was an experimental stist and had in him the spirit of New England transdentalism with its large faith and large charities. Sd faith together led him to try to make his way into the soul which he believed was born in Laura Bridgman as in every other human being. His plan was to teach Laura by means of raised types. He pasted raised labels on objects and made her fit the labels to the objects and the objects to the labels. When she had learned in this way to associate raised words with things, in much the same manner, he says, as a dog learns tricks, he began to resolve the words into their letter elements and to teach her to put together "k-e-y," "c-a-p." His success vinced him that language be veyed through type to the mind of the blind-deaf child, who, before education, is iate of the baby who has not learo prattle; indeed, is in a much worse state, for the brain has grown in years without natural nourishment.
After Lauras education had progressed for two months with the use only of raised letters, Dr. Howe sent one of his teachers to learn the manual alphabet from a deaf-mute. She taught it to Laura, and from that time on the manual alphabet was the means of unig with her.
After the first year or two Dr. Howe did not teach Laura Bridgman himself, but gave her over to other teachers, who under his dire carried on the work of teag her language.
Too much ot be said in praise of Dr. Howes work. As an iigator he kept always the stists attitude. He never fot to keep his records of Laura Bridgman in the fashion of one who works in a laboratory. The result is, his records of her are systematid careful. From a stific standpoint it is unfortuhat it was impossible to keep such a plete record of Helen Kellers development. This in itself is a great ent on the differeween Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. Laura always remained an object of curious study. Helen Keller became so rapidly a distinctive personality that she kept her teacher in a breathless raeet the needs of her pupil, with no time or strength to make a stific study.
In some ways this is unfortunate. Miss Sulliva the beginning that Helen Keller would be more iing and successful than Laura Bridgman, and she expresses in one of her letters the need of keeping notes. But her temperament nor training allowed her to make her pupil the object of any experiment or observation which did not help in the childs development. As soon as a thing was done, a definite goal passed, the teacher did not always look bad describe the way she had e. The explanation of the fact was unimportant pared to the fact itself and the need of hurrying on. There are two other reasons why Miss Sullivans records are inplete. It has always been a severe tax on her eyes to write, and she was early disced from publishing data by the inaccurate use made of what she at first supplied.
When she first wrote from Tuscumbia to Mr. Michael Anagnos, Dr. Howes son-in-law and his successor as Director of the Perkins Institution, about her work with her pupil, the Boston papers began at oo publish exaggerated ats of Helen Keller. Miss Sullivan protested. In a letter dated April 10, 1887, only five weeks after she went to Helen Keller, she wrote to a friend: "-- sent me a Boston Herald taining a stupid article about Helen. How perfectly absurd to say that Helen is already talking fluently! Why, one might just as well say that a two-year-old child verses fluently when he says apple give, or baby walk go. I suppose if you included his screaming, crowing, whimpering, grunting, squalling, with occasional kicks, in his versation, it might be regarded as fluent--even eloquent.
Then it is amusing to read of the elaborate preparation I underwent to fit me for the great task my frierusted to me. I am sorry that preparation didnt include spelling, it would have saved me such a lot of trouble.”
On March 4, 1888, she writes in a letter: "Indeed, I am heartily glad that I dont know all that is being said and written about Helen and myself. I assure you I know quite enough. Nearly every mail brings some absurd statement, printed or written. The truth is not wonderful enough to suit the neers; so they enlarge upon it and i ridiculous embellishments. One paper has Helen demonstrating problems iry by means of her playing blocks. I expect to hear hat she has written a treatise on the in and future of the plas!”
In December, 1887, appeared the first report of the Director of the Perkins Institution, which deals with Helen Keller. For this report Miss Sullivan prepared, iant pliah the request of Mr. Anagnos, an at of her work. This with the extracts from her letters, scattered through the report, is the first valid source of information about Helen Keller. Of this report Miss Sullivan wrote in a letter dated October 30, 1887: "Have you seen the paper I wrote for the report? Mr. Anagnos was delighted with it. He says Helens progress has been a triumphal march from the beginning, and he has many flattering things to say about her teacher. I think he is ined to exaggerate; at all events, his language is too glowing, and simple facts are set forth in such a mahat they bewilder one. Doubtless the work of the past few months does seem like a triumphal mar; but then people seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignifit success is achieved.”
As Mr. Anagnos was the head of a great institution, what he said had much more effect than the facts in Miss Sullivans at on which he based his statements. The neers caught Mr. Anagnoss spirit and exaggerated a hundred-fold. In a year after she first went to Helen Keller, Miss Sullivan found herself and her pupil the tre of a stupendous fi. Then the educators all over the world said their say and for the most part did not help matters. There grew up a mass of troversial matter which it is amusing to read now.
Teachers of the deaf proved a priori that what Miss Sullivan had done could not be, and some discredit was reflected oatements, because they were surrounded by the vague eloquenr. Anagnos. Thus the story of Helen Keller, incredible when told with moderation, had the misfortuo be heralded by exaggerated annous, and naturally met either an ignorant credulity or an incredulous hostility.
In November, 1888, another report of the Perkins Institution appeared with a sed paper by Miss Sullivan, and then nothing official ublished until November, 1891, when Mr. Anagnos issued the last Perkins Institutio taining anything about Helen Keller. For this report Miss Sullivan wrote the fullest and largest at she has ever written; and in this report appeared the "Frost King," which is discussed fully in a later chapter. Then the troversy waxed fiercer than ever.
Finding that other people seemed to know so much more about Helen Keller than she did, Miss Sulliva silent and has been silent for ten years, except for her paper in the first volta Bureau Souvenir of Helen Keller and the paper which, at Dr. Bells request, she prepared in 1894 for the meeting at Chautauqua of the Ameri Association to Promote the Teag of Speech to the Deaf. When Dr. Bell and others tell her, what is certainly true from an impersonal point of view, that she owes it to the cause of education to write what she knows, she answers very properly that she owes all her time and all her energies to her pupil.
Although Miss Sullivan is still rather amused than distressed when some one, even one of her friends, makes mistakes in published articles about her and Miss Keller, still she sees that Miss Kellers book should include all the information that the teacher could at present furnish. So she seo the publication of extracts from letters which she wrote during the first year of her work with her pupil. These letters were written to Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins, the only person to whom Miss Sullivan ever wrote freely. Mrs. Hopkins has been a matron at the Perkins Institution for twenty years, and during the time that Miss Sullivan il there she was like a mother to her. In these letters we have an almost weekly record of Miss Sullivans work. Some of the details she habbr></abbr>d fotten, as she grew more and more to generalize. Many people have thought that any attempt to find the principles in her method would be nothing but a later theory superimposed on Miss Sullivans work. But it is evident that in these letters she was making a clear analysis of what she was doing.
She was her own critid in spite of her later declaration, made with her modest carelessness, that she followed no particular method, she was very clearly learning from her task and phrasing at the time principles of education of unique value not only ieag of the deaf but ieag of all children. The extracts from her letters as form an important tribution to pedagogy, and more than justify the opinion of Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, who wrote in 1893, when he resident of Johns Hopkins Uy: "I have just read... your most iing at of the various steps you have taken in the education of your wonderful pupil, and I hope you will allow me to express my admiration for the wisdom that has guided your methods and the affe which has inspired your labours.”
Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan was born at Springfield, Massachusetts. Very early in her life she became almost totally blind, and she ehe Perkins Institution October 7, 1880, when she was fourteen years old.
Later her sight artially restored.
Mr. Anagnos says in his report of 1887: "She was obliged to begin her education at the lowest and most elementary point; but she showed from the very start that she had in herself the ford capacity whisure success.... She has finally reached the goal for which she strove so bravely. The golden words that Dr.
Howe uttered and the example that he left passed into her thoughts a and helped her on the road to usefulness; and now she stands by his side as his worthy successor in one of the most cherished branches of his work.... Miss Sullivans talents are of the highest order.”
In 1886 she graduated from the Perkins Institution. When Captain Keller applied to the director for a teacher, Mr. Anagnos reended her. The only time she had to prepare herself for the work with her pupil was from August, 1886, when Captain Keller wrote, to February, 1887. During this time she read Dr. Howes reports. She was further aided by the fact that during the six years of her school life she had lived in the house with Laura Bridgman. It was Dr. Howe who, by his work with Laura Bridgman, made Miss Sullivans work possible: but it was Miss Sullivan who discovered the way to teach language to the deaf-blind.
It must be remembered that Miss Sullivan had to solve her problems unaided by previous<bdi>99liｂ?</bdi> experience or the assistance of any other teacher. During the first year of her work with Helen Keller, in which she taught her pupil language, they were in Tuscumbia; and when they came North and visited the Perkins Institution, Helen Keller was never a regular student there or subject to the discipline of the Institution. The impression that Miss Sullivan educated Helen Keller "uhe dire of Mr. Anagnos" is erroneous. Ihree years during which at various times Miss Keller and Miss Sullivan were guests of the Perkins Institution, the teachers there did not help Miss Sullivan, and Mr. Anagnos did not evehe manual alphabet with facility as a means of unir. Anagnos wrote in the report of the Perkins Institution, dated November 27, 1888: "At my urgent request, Helen, apanied by her mother aeacher, came to the North in the last week of May, and spent several months with us as uests.... We gladly allowed her to use freely our library of embossed books, our colle of stuffed animals, sea-shells, models of flowers and plants, and the rest of our apparatus for instrug the blind through the sense of touch. I do not doubt that she derived from them much pleasure and not a little profit. But whether Helen stays at home or makes visits in other parts of the try, her education is always uhe immediate dire and exclusive trol of her teacher. No oerferes with Miss Sullivans plans, or shares iasks. She has been allowed entire freedom in the choieans ahods for carrying on her great work; and, as we judge by the results, she has made a most judicious and discreet use of this privilege. What the little pupil has thus far aplished is widely known, and her wonderful attais and general admiration; but only those who are familiar with the particulars of the grand achievement know that the credit is largely due to the intelligence, wisdom, sagacity, uing perseverand unbending will of the instructress, who rescued the child from the depths of everlasting night and stillness, and watched over the different phases of her mental and moral development with maternal solicitude ahusiastic devotion.”
Here follow in order Miss Sullivaers and the most important passages from the reports. I have omitted from each succeedi what has already been explained and does not o be repeated. For the ease of the reader I have, with Miss Sullivans sent, made the extracts run together tinuously and supplied words of e and the resulting necessary ges in syntax, and Miss Sullivan has made slight ges in the phrasing of her reports and also of her letters, which were carelessly written. I have also italicized a few important passages. Some of her opinions Miss Sullivan would like to enlarge and revise. That remains for her to do at aime. At present we have here the fullest record that has been published. The first letter is dated March 6, 1887, three days after her arrival in Tuscumbia.
...It was 6.30 when I reached Tuscumbia. I found Mrs. Keller and Mr. James Keller waiting for me. They said somebody had met every train for two days. The drive from the station to the house, a distance of one mile, was very lovely aful. I was surprised to find Mrs. Keller a very young-looking woman, not much older than myself, I should think. Captain Keller met us in the yard and gave me a cheery wele and a hearty handshake. My first question was, "Where is Helen?" I tried with all my might to trol the eagerhat made me tremble so that I could hardly walk. As roached the house I saw a child standing in the doorway, and Captain Keller said, "There she is. She has known all day that some one was expected, and she has been wild ever since her mother went to the station for you." I had scarcely put my foot oeps, when she rushed toward me with such force that she would have thrown me backward if Captain Keller had not been behind me. She felt my fad dress and my bag, which she took out of my hand and tried to open. It did not open easily, and she felt carefully to see if there was a keyhole. Finding that there was, she turo me, making the sign of turning a key and pointing to the bag. Her mother interfered at this point and showed Helen by signs that she must not touch the bag. Her face flushed, and when her mother attempted to take the bag from her, she grew very angry. I attracted her attention by showing her my watd letting her hold it in her hand. Instantly the tempest subsided, and we went upstairs together. Here I opehe bag, and she went through it eagerly, probably expeg to find something to eat. Friends had probably brought her dy in their bags, and she expected to find some in mine. I made her uand, by pointing to a trunk in the hall and to myself and nodding my head, that I had a trunk, and then made the sign that she had used for eating, and nodded again. She uood in a flash and ran downstairs to tell her mother, by means of emphatic signs, that there was some dy in a trunk for her. She returned in a few minutes and helped me put away my things. It was too ical to see her put on my bo and cock her head first on one side, then oher, and look in the mirror, just as if she could see. Somehow I had expected to see a pale, delicate child--I suppose I got the idea from Dr. Howes description of Laura Bridgman when she came to the Institution. But theres nothing pale or delicate about Helen. She is large, strong, and ruddy, and as urained in her movements as a young colt. She has none of those nervous habits that are so noticeable and so distressing in blind children. Her body is well formed and vigorous, and Mrs. Keller says she has not been ill a day sihe illhat deprived her of her sight and hearing. She has a fine head, and it is set on her shoulders just right.
Her face is hard to describe. It is intelligent, but lacks mobility, or soul, or something. Her mouth is large and finely shaped. You see at a glahat she is blind. One eye is larger thaher, and protrudes noticeably.
She rarely smiles; indeed, I have seen her smile only once or twice since I came. She is unresponsive and even impatient of caresses from any one except her mother. She is very quick-tempered and wilful, and nobody, except her brother James, has attempted to trol her. The greatest problem I shall have to solve is how to discipline and trol her without breaking her spirit. I shall go rather slowly at first and try to win her love. I shall not attempt to quer her by force alone; but I shall insist on reasonable obedience from the start. Ohing that impresses everybody is Helens tireless activity. She is ill a moment. She is here, there, and everywhere. Her hands are ihing; but nothing holds her attention for long. Dear child, her restless spirit gropes in the dark. Her untaught, unsatisfied hands destroy whatever they touch because they do not know what else to do with things.
She helped me unpack my trunk when it came, and was delighted when she found the doll the little girls sent her. I thought it a good opportunity to teach her her first word. I spelled "d-o-l-l" slowly in her hand and poio the doll and nodded my head, which seems to be her sign for possession. Whenever anybody gives her anything, she points to it, then to herself, and nods her head. She looked puzzled a my hand, and I repeated the letters. She imitated them very well and poio the doll. Then I took the doll, meaning to give it back to her when she had made the letters; but she thought I meant to take it from her, and in an instant she was in a temper, and tried to seize the doll. I shook my head and tried to form the letters with her fingers; but she got more and more angry. I forced her into a chair and held her there until I was nearly exhausted. Then it occurred to me that it was useless to tihe struggle--I must do something to turn the current of her thoughts. I let her go, but refused to give up the doll. I went downstairs and got some cake (she is very fond of sweets). I showed Helen the cake and spelled "c-a-k-e" in her hand, holding the cake toward her. Of course she wa and tried to take it; but I spelled the wain and patted her hand. She made the letters rapidly, and I gave her the cake, which she ate in a great hurry, thinking, I suppose, that I might take it from her. Then I showed her the doll and spelled the wain, holding the doll toward her as I held the cake. She made the letters "d-o-l" and I made the other "l" and gave her the doll. She ran downstairs with it and could not be io return to my room all day.
Yesterday I gave her a sewing-card to do. I made the first row of vertical lines a her feel it and notice that there were several rows of little holes. She began to work delightedly and fihe card in a few minutes, and did it very ly indeed. I thought I would try another word; so I spelled "c-a-r-d." She made the "c-a," then stopped and thought, and making the sign for eating and pointing downward she pushed me toward the door, meaning that I must go downstairs for some cake. The two letters "c-a," you see, had reminded her of Fridays "lesson"--not that she had any idea that cake was the name of the thing, but it was simply a matter of association, I suppose. I fihe word "c-a-k-e" and obeyed her and. She was delighted. Then I spelled "d-o-l-l" and began to hunt for it. She follows with her hands every motion you make, and she khat I was looking for the doll. She pointed down, meaning that the doll was downstairs. I made the signs that she had used when she wished me to go for the cake, and pushed her toward the door. She started forward, theated a moment, evidently debating within herself whether she would go or not. She decided to send me instead. I shook my head and spelled "d-o-l-l" more emphatically, and opehe door for her; but she obstinately refused to obey. She had not fihe cake she was eating, and I took it away, indig that if she brought the doll I would give her back the cake. She stood perfectly still for one long moment, her face crimson; then her desire for the cake triumphed, and she ran downstairs and brought the doll, and of course I gave her the cake, but could not persuade her to ehe room again.
She was very troublesome when I began to write this m. She kept ing up behind me and putting her hand on the paper and into the ink-bottle. These blots are her handiwork. Finally I remembered the kindergarten beads, a her to work stringing them. First I put on two wooden beads and one glass bead, then made her feel of the string and the two boxes of beads. She nodded and began at oo fill the string with wooden beads. I shook my head and took them all off and made her feel of the two wooden beads and the one glass bead. She examihem thoughtfully and began again. This time she put on the glass bead first and the two wooden ones . I took them off and showed her that the two wooden ones must go on first, then the glass bead. She had no further trouble and filled the string quickly, too quickly, in fact. She tied the ends together when she had fihe string, and put the beads round her neck. I did not make the knot large enough in the string, and the beads came off as fast as she put them on; but she solved the difficulty herself by putting the string through a bead and tying it. I thought this very clever. She amused herself with the beads until diime, bringing the strings to me now and then for my approval.
My eyes are very muflamed. I know this letter is very carelessly written. I had a lot to say, and couldnt stop to think how to express things ly. Please do not show my letter to any one. If you want to, you may read it to my friends.
Monday P.M.
I had a battle royal with Helen this m. Although I try very hard not to force issues, I find it very difficult to avoid them.
Helens table manners are appalling. She puts her hands in our plates and helps herself, and when the dishes are passed, she grabs them and takes out whatever she wants. This m I would not let her put her hand in my plate. She persisted, and a test of wills followed. Naturally the family was much disturbed, ahe room. I locked the dining-room door, and proceeded to eat my breakfast, though the food almost choked me.
Helen was lying on the floor, kig and screaming and trying to pull my chair from under me. She kept this up for half an hour, the up to see what I was doing. I let her see that I was eating, but did not let her put her hand in the plate. She pinched me, and I slapped her every time she did it. Then she went all round the table to see who was there, and finding no o me, she seemed bewildered. After a few minutes she came back to her plad began to eat her breakfast with her fingers. I gave her a spoon, which she threw on the floor. I forced her out of the chair and made her pick it up. Finally I succeeded iing her ba her chair again, ahe spoon in her hand, pellio take up the food with it and put it in her mouth. In a few minutes she yielded and finished her breakfast peaceably. Then we had aussle over folding her napkin. When she had finished, she threw it on the floor and ran toward the door. Finding it locked, she began to kid scream all ain. It was another hour before I succeeded iing her napkin folded. Then I let her out into the warm sunshine a up to my room and threw myself on the bed exhausted. I had a good cry a better. I suppose I shall have many such battles with the little woman before she learns the only two essential things I teach her, obediend love.
Good-by, dear. Dont worry; Ill do my best and leave the rest to whatever power mahat which we ot. I like Mrs. Keller very much.
Tuscumbia, Alabama, March 11, 1887.
Since I wrote you, Helen and I have goo live all by ourselves in a little garden-house about a quarter of a mile from her home, only a short distance from Ivy Green, the Keller homestead. I very soon made up my mind that I could do nothing with Helen in the midst of the family, who have always allowed her to do exactly as she pleased. She has tyrannized over everybody, her mother, her father, the servants, the little darkies who play with her, and nobody had ever seriously disputed her will, except occasionally her brother James, until I came; and like all tyrants she holds tenaciously to her divine right to do as she pleases. If she ever failed to get what she wanted, it was because of her inability to make the vassals of her household uand what it was.
Every thwarted desire was the signal for a passioburst, and as she grew older and strohese tempests became more violent. As I began to teach her, I was beset by many difficulties. She wouldnt yield a point without testing it to the bitter end. I couldnt coax her or promise with her. To get her to do the simplest thing, such as bing her hair or washing her hands or buttoning her boots, it was necessary to use force, and, of course, a distressing se followed. The family naturally felt ined to interfere, especially her father, who ot bear to see her cry. So they were all willing to give in for the sake of peace. Besides, her past experiences and associations were all against me. I saw clearly that it was useless to try to teach her language or anything else until she learo obey me. I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through whiowledge, yes, and love, too, ehe mind of the child. As I wrote you, I meant to go slowly at first. I had ahat I could win the love and fideny little pupil by the same means that I should use if she could see and hear. But I soon found that I was cut off from all the usual approaches to the childs heart. She accepted everything I did for her as a matter of course, and refused to be caressed, and there was no way of appealing to her affe or sympathy or childish love of approbation. She would or she wouldnt, and there was an end of it. Thus it is, we study, plan and prepare ourselves for a task, and when the hour for a arrives, we find that the system we have followed with such labour and pride does not fit the occasion; and then theres nothing for us to do but rely on something within us, some innate capacity for knowing and doing, which we did not know we possessed until the hour of reat need brought it to light.
I had a good, frank talk with Mrs. Keller, and explaio her how difficult it was going to be to do anything with Helen uhe existing circumstances. I told her that in my opinion the child ought to be separated from the family for a few weeks at least--that she must learn to depend on and obey me before I could make any headway. After a long time Mrs. Keller said that she would think the matter over and see what Captain Keller thought of sending Helen away with me. Captain Keller fell in with the scheme most readily and suggested that the little garden-house at the "old place" be got ready for us. He said that Helen might reize the place, as she had oftehere, but she would have no idea of her surroundings, and they could e every day to see that all was going well, with the uanding, of course, that she was to know nothing of their visits. I hurried the preparations for our departure as much as possible, and here we are.
The little house is a ge of paradise. It sists of one large square room with a great fireplace, a spacious bay-window, and a small room where our servant, a little negro boy, sleeps. There is a piazza in front, covered with vihat grow so luxuriantly that you have to part them to see the garden beyond. Our meals are brought from the house, and we usually eat on the piazza. The little negro boy takes care of the fire when we need one, so I give my whole attention to Helen.
She was greatly excited at first, and kicked and screamed herself into a sort of stupor, but when supper was brought she ate heartily and seemed brighter, although she refused to let me touch her. She devoted herself to her dolls the first evening, and when it was bedtime she undressed very quietly, but when she felt me get into bed with her, she jumped out oher side, and nothing that I could do would induce her to get in again.
But I was afraid she would take cold, and I insisted that she must go to bed. We had a terrific tussle, I tell you. The struggle lasted for nearly two hours. I never saw such strength and enduran a child. But fortunately for us both, I am a little stronger, and quite as obstinate when I set out. I finally succeeded iing her on the bed and covered her up, and she lay curled up as he edge of the bed as possible.
The m she was very docile, but evidently homesick. She kept going to the door, as if she expected some one, and every now and then she would touch her cheek, which is her sign for her mother, and shake her head sadly. She played with her dolls more than usual, and would have nothing to do with me. It is amusing and pathetic to see Helen with her dolls. I dont think she has any special tenderness for them--I have never seen her caress them; but she dresses and undresses them many times during the day and hahem exactly as she has seen her mother and the nurse handle her baby sister.
This m Nancy, her favourite doll, seemed to have some difficulty about swallowing the milk that was being administered to her in large spoonfuls; for Helen suddenly put down the cup and began to slap her on the bad turn her over on her krotting her gently and patting her softly all the time. This lasted for several mihen this mood passed, and Nancy was thrown ruthlessly on the floor and pushed to one side, while a large, pink-cheeked, fuzzy-haired member of the family received the little mothers undivided attention.
Helen knows several words now, but has no idea how to use them, or that everything has a name. I think, however, she will learn quickly enough by and by. As I have said before, she is wonderfully bright and active and as quick as lightning in her movements.
March 13, 1887.
You will be glad to hear that my experiment is w out finely. I have not had any trouble at all with Heleher yesterday or to-day. She has learhree new words, and when I give her the objects, the names of which she has learned, she spells them uatingly; but she seems glad when the lesson is over.
We had a good frolic this m out in the garden. Helen evidently knew where she was as soon as she touched the boxwood hedges, and made many signs which I did not uand. No doubt they were signs for the different members of the family at Ivy Green.
I have just heard something that surprised me very much. It seems that Mr. Anagnos had heard of Helen before he received Captain Kellers letter last summer. Mr. Wilson, a teacher at Florence, and a friend of the Kellers, studied at Harvard the summer before ao the Perkins Institution to learn if anything could be done for his friends child. He saw a gentleman whom he presumed to be the director, and told him about Helen. He says the gentleman was not particularly ied, but said he would see if anything could be done.
Doesnt it seem strahat Mr. Anagnos never referred to this interview?
March 20, 1887.
My heart is singing for joy this m. A miracle has happehe light of uanding has shone upon my little pupils mind, and behold, all things are ged!
The wild little creature of two weeks ago has been transformed into a gentle child. She is sitting by me as I write, her face serene and happy, crocheting a long red of Scotch wool. She learhe stitch this week, and is very proud of the achievement. When she succeeded in making a that would reach across the room, she patted herself on the arm and put the first work of her hands lovingly against her cheek. She lets me kiss her now, and when she is in a particularly gentle mood, she will sit in my lap for a minute or two; but she does not return my caresses. The great step--the step that ts--has been taken. The little savage has learned her first lesson in obedience, and finds the yoke easy. It now remains my pleasant task to dired mould the beautiful intelligehat is beginning to stir in the child-soul. Already people remark the ge in Helen.
Her father looks in at us m and evening as he goes to and from his office, and sees her tentedly stringing her beads or making horizontal lines on her sewing-card, and exclaims, "How quiet she is!" When I came, her movements were so insistent that one always felt there was something unnatural and almost weird about her. I have noticed also that she eats much less, a fact which troubles her father so much that he is anxious to get her home. He says she is homesick. I dont agree with him; but I suppose we shall have to leave our little bower very soon.
Helen has learned several nouns this week. "M-u-g" and "m-i-l-k," have given her more trouble than other words. When she spells "milk," she points to the mug, and when she spells "mug," she makes the sign for p or drinking, which shows that she has fused the words. She has no idea yet that everything has a name.
Yesterday I had the little negro boy e in when Helen was having her lesson, and learters, too. This pleased her very mud stimulated her ambition to excel Percy. She was delighted if he made a mistake, and made him form the letter over several times. When he succeeded in f it to suit her, she patted him on his woolly head so vigorously that I thought some of his slips were iional.
One day this week Captain Keller brought Belle, a setter of which he is very proud, to see us. He wondered if Helen would reize her old playmate. Helen was giving Nancy a bath, and didnt notice the dog at first.
She usually feels the softest step and throws out her arms to ascertain if any one is near her. Belle didnt seem very anxious to attract her attention. I imagine she has been rather roughly handled sometimes by her little mistress. The dog hadnt been in the room more than half a minute, however, before Helen began to sniff, and dumped the doll into the wash-bowl a about the room. She stumbled upon Belle, who was croug he window where Captain Keller was standing. It was evident that she reized the dog; for she put her arms round her ned squeezed her. Then Helen sat down by her and began to manipulate her claws.
We couldnt think for a sed what she was doing; but when we saw her make the letters "d-o-l-l" on her own fingers, we khat she was trying to teach Belle to spell.
March 28, 1887.
Helen and I came home yesterday. I am sorry they would us stay another week; but I think I have made the most I could of the opportuhat were mihe past two weeks, and I dont expect that I shall have any serious trouble with Helen iure. The back of the greatest obstacle ih ress is broken. I think "no" and "yes," veyed by a shake or a nod of my head, have bee facts as apparent to her as hot and cold or as the differeween pain and pleasure. And I dont ihat the lesson she has lear the cost of so much pain and trouble shall be unlearned. I shall staween her and the over-indulgence of her parents. I have told Captain and Mrs. Keller that they must not interfere with me in any way. I have done my best to make them see the terrible injustice to Helen of allowio have her way ihing, and I have pointed out that the processes of teag the child that everything ot be as he wills it, are apt to be painful both to him and to his teacher. They have promised to let me have a free hand and help me as much as possible. The improvement they ot help seeing in their child has given them more fiden me. Of course, it is hard for them. I realize that it hurts to see their afflicted little child punished and made to do things against her will. Only a few hours after my talk with Captain and Mrs. Keller (and they had agreed to everything), Helen took a notion that she wouldnt use her napkin at table. I think she wao see what would happen. I attempted several times to put the napkin round her neck; but each time she tore it off and threw it on the floor and finally began to kick the table. I took her plate away and started to take her out of the room. Her father objected and said that no child of his should be deprived of his food on any at.
Helen didnt e up to my room after supper, and I didnt see her again until breakfast-time. She was at her place when I came down. She had put the napkin under her , instead of pinning it at the back, as was her . She called my attention to the new arra, and when I did not object she seemed pleased and patted herself. When she left the dining-room, she took my hand and patted it. I wondered if she was trying to "make up." I thought I would try the effect of a little belated discipline. I went back to the dining-room and got a napkin. When Helen came upstairs for her lesson, I arrahe objects oable as usual, except that the cake, which I always give her in bits as a reward when she spells a word quickly and correctly, was not there. She noticed this at ond made the sign for it. I showed her the napkin and pi round her neck, then tore it off and threw it on the floor and shook my head. I repeated this performance several times. I think she uood perfectly well; for she slapped her hand two or three times and shook her head. We began the lesson as usual. I gave her an object, and she spelled the name (she knows twelve now). After spelling half the words, she stopped suddenly, as if a thought had flashed into her mind, a for the napkin. She pi round her ned made the sign for cake (it didnt occur to her to spell the word, you see). I took this for a promise that if I gave her some cake she would be a good girl. I gave her a larger piece than usual, and she chuckled and patted herself.
April 3, 1887.
We almost live in the garden, where everything is growing and blooming and glowing. After breakfast we go out and watch the men at work. Helen loves to dig and play in the dirt like any other child. This m she planted her doll and showed me that she expected her to grow as tall as I. You must see that she is very bright, but you have no idea how ing she is.
At ten we e in and string beads for a few minutes. She make a great many binations now, and often is new ones herself. Then I let her decide whether she will sew or knit or crochet. She learo knit very quickly, and is making a wash-cloth for her mother. Last week she made her doll an apron, and it was done as well as any child of her age could do it. But I am always glad when this work is over for the day.
Sewing and crocheting are iions of the devil, I think. Id rather break stones on the kings highway than hem a handkerchief. At eleven we have gymnastics. She knows all the free-hand movements and the "Anvil Chorus" with the dumb-bells. Her father says he is going to fit up a gymnasium for her in the pump-house; but we both like a good romp better tha exercises. The hour from twelve to one is devoted to the learning of new words. BUT YOU MUSTNT THINK THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I SPELL TO HELEN; FOR I SPELL IN HER HAND EVERYTHING WE DO ALL DAY LONG, ALTHOUGH SHE HAS NO IDEA AS YET WHAT THE SPELLING MEANS. After dinner I rest for an hour, and Helen plays with her dolls or froli the yard with the little darkies, who were her stant panions before I came. Later I join them, and we make the rounds of the outhouses. We visit the horses and mules in their stalls and hunt fs ahe turkeys. Often, when the weather is fine, we drive from four to six, o to see her aunt at Ivy Green or her cousins iown. Helens instincts are decidedly social; she likes to have people about her and to visit her friends, partly, I think, because they always have things she likes to eat. After supper we go to my room and do all sorts of things until eight, when I uhe little woman and put her to bed. She sleeps with me now.
Mrs. Keller wao get a nurse for her, but I cluded Id rather be her han look after a stupid, lazy negress. Besides, I like to have Helen depend on me for everything, AND I FIND IT MUCH EASIER TO TEACH HER THINGS AT ODD MOMENTS THAN AT SET TIMES.
On March 31st I found that Helen keen nouns and three verbs. Here is a list of the words. Those with a cross after them are words she asked for herself: DOLL, MUG, PIN, KEY, DOG, HAT, CUP, BOX, WATER, MILK, DY, EYE (X), FINGER (X), TOE (X), HEAD (X), CAKE, BABY, MOTHER, SIT, STAND, WALK. On April 1st she learhe nouns KNIFE, FORK, SPOON, SAUCER, TEA, PAPA, BED, and the verb RUN.
April 5, 1887.
I must write you a lihis m because something very important has happened. Helen has taken the sed great step in her education. She has learhat EVERYTHING HAS A NAME, AND THAT THE MANUAL ALPHABET IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING SHE WANTS TO KNOW.
In a previous letter I think I wrote you that "mug" and "milk" had given Helen more trouble than all the rest.
She fused the nouns with the verb "drink." She didnt know the word for "drink," but went through the pantomime of drinking whenever she spelled "mug" or "milk." This m, while she was washing, she wao know the name for "water." When she wants to know the name of anything, she points to it and pats my hand. I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" and thought no more about it until after breakfast. Then it occurred to me that with the help of this new word I might succeed in straightening out the "mug-milk" difficulty. We went out to the pump-house, and I made Helen hold her mug uhe spout while I pumped. As the cold water gushed forth, filling the mug, I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" in Helens free hand. The word ing so close upon the sensation of cold water rushing over her hand seemed to startle her. She dropped the mug and stood as oransfixed. A new light came into her face. She spelled "water" several times. Then she dropped on the ground and asked for its name and poio the pump and the trellis, and suddenly turning round she asked for my name. I spelled "Teacher." Just then the nurse brought Helens little sister into the pump-house, and Helen spelled "baby" and poio the nurse. All the way back to the house she was highly excited, and learhe name of every object she touched, so that in a few hours she had adDED THIRTY NEW WORDS TO HER VOCABULARY. HERE ARE SOME OF THEM: DOOR, OPEN, SHUT, GIVE, GO, E, and a great many more.
P.S.--I didnt finish my letter in time to get it posted last night; so I shall add a line. Helen got up this m like a radiant fairy. She has flitted from object to object, asking the name of everything and kissing me for very gladness. Last night when I got in bed, she stole into my arms of her own accord and kissed me for the first time, and I thought my heart would burst, so full was it of joy.
April 10, 1887.
I see an improvement in Helen day to day, almost from hour to hour. Everything must have a name now.
Wherever we go, she asks eagerly for the names of things she has not lear home. She is anxious for her friends to spell, and eager to teach the letters to every one she meets. She drops the signs and pantomime she used before, as soon as she has words to supply their place, and the acquirement of a new word affords her the liveliest pleasure. Aice that her face grows more expressive each day.
I HAVE DECIDED NOT TO TRY TO HAVE REGULAR LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT. I AM GOING TO TREAT HELELY LIKE A TWO-YEAR-OLD CHILD. IT OCCURRED TO ME THE OTHER DAY THAT IT IS ABSURD TO REQUIRE A CHILD TO E TO A CERTAIN PLACE AT A CERTAIN TIME AE CERTAIN LESSONS, WHEN HE HAS NOT YET ACQUIRED A W VOCABULARY. I sent Helen away and sat down to think. I asked myself, "How does a normal child learn language?" The answer was simple, "By imitation." The child es into the world with the ability to learn, and he learns of himself, provided he is supplied with suffit outward stimulus. He sees people do things, aries to do them. He hears others speak, aried to speak. BUT LONG BEFORE HE UTTERS HIS FIRST WORD, HE UANDS WHAT IS SAID TO HIM. I have been Helens little cousin lately. She is about fifteen months old, and already uands a great deal. In respoo questions she points out prettily her nose, mouth, eye, , cheek, ear. If I say, "Where is babys other ear?" she points it out correctly. If I hand her a flower, and say, "Give it to mamma," she takes it to her mother. If I say, "Where is the little rogue?" she hides behind her mothers chair, or covers her face with her hands and peeps out at me with an expression of genuine roguishness. She obeys many ands like these: "e," "Kiss," "Go to papa," "Shut the door," "Give me the biscuit." But I have not heard her try to say any of these words, although they have beeed hundreds of times in her hearing, and it is perfectly evident that she uands them. These observations have given me a clue to the method to be followed in teag Helen language.I SHALL TALK INTO HER HAND AS WE TALK INTO THE BABYS EARS. I shall assume that she has the normal childs capacity of assimilation and imitation. I SHALL USE PLETE SENTENCES IN TALKING TO HER, and fill out the meaning with gestures and her descriptive signs when y requires it; but I shall not try to keep her mind fixed on any ohing. I shall do all I to i and stimulate it, and wait for results.
April 24, 1887.
The new scheme works splendidly. Helen knows the meaning of more than a hundred words now, and learns new ones daily without the slightest suspi that she is perf a most difficult feat. She learns because she t help it, just as the bird learns to fly. But dont imagihat she "talks fluently." Like her baby cousin, she expresses whole sentences by single words. "Milk," with a gesture means, "Give me more milk.”
"Mother," apanied by an inquiring look, means, "Were is mother?" "Go" means, "I want to go out." But when I spell into her hand, "Give me some bread," she hands me the bread, or if I say, "Get your hat and we will go to walk," she obeys instantly. The two words, "hat" and "walk" would have the same effect; BUT THE WHOLE SENTENCE, REPEATED MANY TIMES DURING THE DAY, MUST IN TIME IMPRESS ITSELF UPON THE BRAIN, AND BY AND BY SHE WILL USE IT HERSELF.
We play a little game which I find most useful in developing the intellect, and whitally ahe purpose of a language lesson. It <mark>藏书网</mark>is an adaptation of hide-the-thimble. I hide something, a ball or a spool, and we hunt for it. When we first played this game two or three days ago, she showed no iy at all in finding the object. She looked in places where it would have been impossible to put the ball or the spool. For instance, when I hid the ball, she looked under her writing-board. Again, when I hid the spool, she looked for it in a little box not more than an inch long; and she very soon gave up the searow I keep up her i in the game for an hour or longer, and she shows much more intelligence, and ofte iy in the search.
This m I hid a cracker. She looked everywhere she could think of without success, and was evidently in despair when suddenly a thought struck her, and she came running to me and made me open my mouth very wide, while she gave it a thh iigation. Finding no trace of the cracker there, she poio my stomad spelled "eat," meaning, "Did you eat it?”
Friday we went down town a a gentleman who gave Helen some dy, which she ate, except one small piece which she put in her apron pocket. When we reached home, she found her mother, and of her own accord said, "Give baby dy." Mrs. Keller spelled, "No--baby eat--no." Heleo the cradle a of Mildreds mouth and poio her owh. Mrs. Keller spelled "teeth." Helen shook her head and spelled "Baby teeth--no, baby eat--no," meaning of course, "Baby ot eat because she has h.”
May 8, 1887.
No, I dont want any more kindergarten materials. I used my little stock of beads, cards and straws at first because I didnt know what else to do; but the need for them is past, for the present at any rate.
I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more aer, if less showily. Let him go and e freely, let him touch real things and bine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teag fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child develop indepe ideas out of actual experiences.
Helen is learning adjectives and adverbs as easily as she learned nouns. The idea alrecedes the word.
She had signs for SMALL and LARGE long before I came to her. If she wanted a small objed was given a large one, she would shake her head and take up a tiny bit of the skin of one haweehumb and finger of the other. If she wao indicate something large, she spread the fingers of both hands as wide as she could, and brought them together, as if to clasp a big ball. The other day I substituted the words SMALL and LARGE for these signs, and she at once adopted the words and discarded the signs. I ow tell her t me a large book or a small plate, to go upstairs slowly, to run fast and to walk quickly. This m she used the jun AND for the first time. I told her to shut the door, and she added, "and lock.”
She came tearing upstairs a few minutes ago in a state of great excitement. I couldnt make out at first what it was all about. She kept spelling "dog--baby" and pointing to her five fingers oer another, and sug them. My first thought was, one of the dogs has hurt Mildred; but Helens beaming face set my fears at rest.
Nothing would do but I must go somewhere with her to see something. She led the way to the pump-house, and there in the er was one of the setters with five dear little pups! I taught her the word "puppy" and drew her hand over them all, while they sucked, and spelled "puppies." She was muterested in the feeding process, and spelled "m" and "baby" several times. Helen noticed that the puppies eyes were closed, and she said, "Eyes--shut. Sleep--no," meaning, "The eyes are shut, but the puppies are not asleep." She screamed with glee whetle things squealed and squirmed in their efforts to get back to their mother, and spelled, "Baby--eat large." I suppose her idea was "Baby eats much." She poio each puppy, oer another, and to her five fingers, and I taught her the word FIVE. Then she held up one finger and said "baby." I knew she was thinking of Mildred, and I spelled, "One baby and five puppies." After she had played with them a little while, the thought occurred to her that the puppies must have special names, like people, and she asked for the name of each pup. I told her to ask her father, and she said, "No--mother." She evidently thought mothers were more likely to know about babies of all sorts. She noticed that one of the puppies was much smaller thahers, and she spelled "small," making the sign at the same time, and I said "very small." She evidently uood that VERY was the name of the hing that had e into her head; for all the way back to the house she used the word VERY correctly. Oone was "small," another was "very small." Wheouched her little sister, she said: "Baby--small. Puppy- very small." Soon after, she began to vary her steps from large to small, and little ming steps were "very small." She is going through the house nolying the new words to all kinds of objects.
Since I have abahe idea ular lessons, I find that Helen learns much faster. I am vihat the time spent by the teacher in digging out of the child what she has put into him, for the sake of satisfying herself that it has taken root, is so much time thrown away. ITS MUCH BETTER, I THINK, TO ASSUME THAT THE CHILD IS DOING HIS PART, AND THAT THE SEED YOU HAVE SOWN WILL BEAR FRUIT IIME. Its only fair to the child, anyhow, and it saves you munecessary trouble.
May 16, 1887.
We have begun to take long walks every m, immediately after breakfast. The weather is fine, and the air is full of the st of strawberries. Our objective point is Kellers Landing, oennessee, about two miles distant. We never knoe get there, or where we are at a given moment; but that only adds to our enjoyment, especially whehing is new and strange. Indeed, I feel as if I had never seen anything until now, Helen finds so much to ask about along the way. We chase butterflies, and sometimes cate. The down under a tree, or in the shade of a bush, and talk about it. Afterwards, if it has survived the lesso it go; but usually its life ay are sacrificed oar of learning, though in another se lives forever; for has it not been transformed into living thoughts? It is wonderful how wee ideas!
Every new word Helen learns seems to carry with it y for many more. Her mind grows through its ceaseless activity.
Kellers Landing was used during the war to land troops, but has long since goo pieces, and is rown with moss and weeds. The solitude of the place sets one dreaming. he landing there is a beautiful little spring, which Helen calls "squirrel-cup," because I told her the squirrels came there to drink. She has felt dead squirrels and rabbits and other wild animals, and is anxious to see a "walk-squirrel," whiterpreted, means, I think, a "live squirrel." We go home about diime usually, and Helen is eager to tell her mother everything she has seen. THIS DESIRE TO REPEAT WHAT HAS BEEN TOLD HER SHOWS A MARKED ADVAN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HER INTELLECT, AND IS AN INVALUABLE STIMULUS TO THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE. I ASK ALL HER FRIENDS TO ENCE HER TO TELL THEM OF HER DOINGS, AND TO MA AS MUCH CURIOSITY AND PLEASURE IN HER LITTLE ADVENTURES AS THEY POSSIBLY . This gratifies the childs love of approbation and keeps up her i in things. This is the basis of real intercourse. She makes many mistakes, of course, twists words and phrases, puts the cart before the horse, as herself into hopeless tangles of nouns and verbs; but so does the hearing child. I am sure these difficulties will take care of themselves. The impulse to tell is the important thing. I supply a word here and there, sometimes a sentence, and suggest something which she has omitted or fotten. Thus her vocabulary groace, and the new werminate and bring forth new ideas; and they are the stuff out of which heaven ah are made.
May 22, 1887.
My wrows more abs and iing every day. Helen is a wonderful child, so spontaneous and eager to learn. She knows about 300 words now and A GREAT MANY ON IDIOMS, and it is not three months yet since she learned her first word. It is a rare privilege to watch the birth, growth, and first feeble struggles of a living mind; this privilege is mine; and moreover, it is giveo rouse and guide this bright intelligence.
If only I were better fitted for the great task! I feel every day more and more ie. My mind is full of ideas; but I ot get them int shape. You see, my mind is undisciplined, full of skips and jumps, and here and there a lot of things huddled together in dark ers. How I long to put it in order! Oh, if only there were some oo help me! I need a teacher quite as much as Helen. I know that the education of this child will be the distinguishi of my life, if I have the brains and perseverao aplish it. I have made up my mind about ohing: Helen must learn to use books- indeed, we must both learn to use them, and that reminds me--will you please ask Mr. Anagnos to get me Perezs and Sullys Psychologies? I think I shall find them helpful.
We have reading lessons every day. Usually we take one of the little "Readers" up in a big tree he house and spend an hour or two finding the words Helen already knows. WE MAKE A SORT OF GAME OF IT and try to see who find the words most quickly, Helen with her fingers, or I with my eyes, and she learns as many new words as I explain with the help of those she knows. When her fingers light upon words she knows, she fairly screams with pleasure and hugs and kisses me for joy, especially if she thinks she has me beaten. It would astonish you to see how many words she learns in an hour in this pleasant manner. Afterward I put the new words into little sentences in the frame, and sometimes it is possible to tell a little story about a bee or a cat or a little boy in this way. I ow tell her to go upstairs or down, out of doors or into the house, lock or unlock a door, take objects, sit, stand, walk, run, lie, creep, roll, or climb. She is delighted with a-words; so it is no trouble at all to teach her verbs. She is always ready for a lesson, and the eagerness with which she absorbs ideas is very delightful. She is as triumphant over the quest of a sentence as a general who has captured the enemys stronghold.
One of Helens old habits, that is stro and hardest to correct, is a tendency to break things. If she finds anything in her way, she flings it on the floor, no matter what it is: a glass, a pitcher, or even a lamp. She has a great many dolls, and every one of them has been broken in a fit of temper or ennui. The other day a friend brought her a new doll from Memphis, and I thought I would see if I could make Helen uand that she must not break it. I made her gh the motion of knog the dolls head oable and spelled to her: "No, no, Helen is naughty. Teacher is sad," a her feel the grieved expression on my face. Then I made her caress the doll and kiss the hurt spot and hold it gently in her arms, and I spelled to her, "Good Helen, teacher is happy," a her feel the smile on my face. She went through these motions several times, mimig every movement, theood very still for a moment with a troubled look on her face, which suddenly cleared, and she spelled, "Good Helen," and wreathed her fa a very large, artificial smile. Then she carried the doll upstairs and put it oop shelf of the wardrobe, and she has not touched it since.
Please give my kind regards to Mr. Anagnos a him see my letter, if you thi. I hear there is a deaf and blind child being educated at the Baltimore Institution.
June 2, 1887.
The weather is scorg. We need rain badly. We are all troubled about Helen. She is very nervous aable. She is restless at night and has no appetite. It is hard to know what to do with her. The doctor says her mind is too active; but how are we to keep her from thinking? She begins to spell the minute she wakes up in the m, and tinues all day long. If I refuse to talk to her, she spells into her own hand, and apparently carries on the liveliest versation with herself.
I gave her my braille slate to play with, thinking that the meical prig of holes in the paper would amuse her a her mind. But what was my astonishment when I found that the little witch was writiers! I had no idea she knew what a letter was. She has often goh me to the post-offiail letters, and I suppose I have repeated to her things I wrote to you. She koo, that I sometimes write "letters to blind girls" on the slate; but I didnt suppose that she had any clear idea what a letter was. One day she brought me a sheet that she had punched full of holes, and wao put it in an envelope and take it to the post-office. She said, "Frank--letter." I asked her what she had written to Frank. She replied, "Much words.
Puppy m--five. Baby--cry. Hot. Helen walk--no. Sunfire--bad. Frank--e. Helen--kiss Frank.
Strawberries--very good.”
Helen is almost as eager to read as she is to talk. I find she grasps the import of whole sentences, catg from the text the meaning of words she doesnt know; and her eager questions indicate the outward reag of her mind and its unusual powers.
The ht when I went to bed, I found Helen sound asleep with a big book clasped tightly in her arms.
She had evidently been reading, and fallen asleep. When I asked her about it in the m, she said, "Book--cry," and pleted her meaning by shaking and ns of fear. I taught her the word AFRAID, and she said: "Helen is not afraid. Book is afraid. Book will sleep with girl." I told her that the book wasnt afraid, and must sleep in its case, and that "girl" mustnt read in bed. She looked very roguish, and apparently uood that I saw through her ruse.
I am glad Mr. Anagnos thinks so highly of me as a teacher. But "genius" and &quinality" are words we should not use lightly. If, ihey apply to me eveely, I do not see that I deserve any laudation on that at.
And right here I want to say something which is for your ears alone. Something withiells me that I shall succeed beyond my dreams. Were it not for some circumstahat make su idea highly improbable, even absurd, I should think Helens education would surpass in i and wonder Dr. Howes achievement. I know that she has remarkable powers, and I believe that I shall be able to develop and mould them. I ot tell how I know these things. I had no idea a short time ago how to go to work; I was feeling about in the dark; but somehow I know now, and I know that I know. I ot explain it; but when difficulties arise, I am not perplexed or doubtful. I know how to meet them; I seem to divine Helens peculiar needs. It is wonderful.
Already people are taking a deep i in Helen. No one see her without being impressed. She is no ordinary child, and peoples i in her education will be no ordinary i. Therefore let us be exceedingly careful what we say and write about her. I shall write freely to you and tell you everything, on one dition: It is this: you must promise o show my letters to any one. My beautiful Helen shall not be transformed into a prodigy if I help it.
June 5, 1887.
The heat makes Helen languid and quiet. Ihe Tophetic weather has reduced us all to a semi-liquid state. Yesterday Helen took off her clothes and sat in her skin all the afternoon. When the sun got round to the window where she was sitting with her book, she got up impatiently and shut the window. But when the sun came in just the same, she came over to me with a grieved look and spelled emphatically: "Sun is bad boy.
Sun must go to bed.”
She is the dearest, cutest little thing now, and so loving! One day, when I wanted her t me some water, she said: "Legs very tired. Legs cry much.”
She is muterested in some little chis that are peg their way into the world this m. I let her hold a shell in her hand, ahe chi "chip, chip." Her astonishment, when she felt the tiny creature inside, ot be put in a letter. The hen was very gentle, and made no obje to our iigations. Besides the chis, we have several other additions to the family--two calves, a colt, and a penful of funny little pigs. You would be amused to see me hold a squealing pig in my arms, while Helen feels it all over, and asks tless questions--questions not easy to answer either. After seeing the chi e out of the egg, she asked: "Did baby pig grow in egg? Where are many shells?”
Helens head measures twenty and one-half inches, and mine measures twenty-one and one-half inches. You see, Im only one inch ahead!
June 12, 1887.
The weather tinues hot. Helen is about the same--pale and thin; but you mustnt think she is really ill. I am sure the heat, and not the natural, beautiful activity of her mind, is responsible for her dition. Of course, I shall not overtax her brain. We are bothered a good deal by people who assume the responsibility of the world when God is ful. They tell us that Helen is "overdoing," that her mind is too active (these very people thought she had no mind at all a few months ago!) and suggest many absurd and impossible remedies. But so far nobody seems to have thought of chlor her, which is, I think, the only effective way of stopping the natural exercise of her faculties. Its queer hoeople always are with advi any real or imaginary emergency, and no matter how many times experience has showo be wrong, they tio set forth their opinions, as if they had received them from the Almighty!
I am teag Helen the square-haers as a sort of diversion. It gives her something to do, and keeps her quiet, which I think is desirable while this eiher lasts. She has a perfect mania for ting. She has ted everything in the house, and is now busy ting the words in her primer. I hope it will not occur to her to t the hairs of her head. If she could see and hear, I suppose she would get rid of her superfluous energy in ways which would not, perhaps, tax her brain so much, although I suspect that the ordinary child takes his play pretty seriously. The little fellohirls his "New York Flyer" round the nursery, making "horseshoe curves" undreamed of by less imaginative engineers, is trating his whole soul on his toy lootive.
She just came to say, with a worried expression, "Girl--not t very large (many) words." I said, "No, go and play with Nancy." This suggestion didnt please her, however; for she replied, "No. Nancy is very sick." I asked what was the matter, and she said, "Much (many) teeth do make Nancy sick." (Mildred is teething.) I happeo tell her the other day that the vine on the fence was a "creeper." She was greatly amused, and began at oo find analogies between her movements and those of the plants. They run, creep, hop, and skip, bend, fall, climb, and swing; but she tells me roguishly that she is "lant.”
Helen held some worsted for me last night while I wound it. Afterward she began to swing round and round, spelling to herself all the time, "Wind fast, wind slow," and apparently enjoying her ceit very much.
June 15, 1887.
We had a glorious thuempest last night, and its much cooler to-day. We all feel refreshed, as if wed had a shower-bath. Helens as lively as a cricket. She wao know if men were shooting in the sky when she felt the thunder, and if the trees and flowers drank all the rain.
June 19, 1887.
My little pupil tio mahe same eagero learn as at first. Her every waking moment is spent in the endeavour to satisfy her innate desire for knowledge, and her mind works so incessantly that we have feared for her health. But her appetite, which left her a few weeks ago, has returned, and her sleep seems more quiet and natural. She will be seven years old the twenty-seventh of this month. Her height is four feet one inch, and her head measures twenty and one-half inches in circumferehe line being drawn round the head so as to pass over the prominences of the parietal and frontal bones. Above this lihe head rises one and one-fourth inches.
During our walks she keeps up a tinual spelling, and delights to apany it with as such as skipping, hopping, jumping, running, walking fast, walking slow, and the like. When she drops stitches she says, "Helen wrong, teacher will cry." If she wants water she says, "Give Helen drink water." She knows four hundred words besides numerous proper nouns. In one lesson I taught her these words: BEDSTEAD, MATTRESS, SHEET, BLA, FORTER, SPREAD, PILLOW. The day I found that she remembered all but spread. The same day she had learned, at different times, the words: hOUSE, WEED, DUST, SWING, MOLASSES, FAST, SLOLE-SUGAR and TER, and she had not fotten one of these last. This will give you an idea of the retentive memory she possesses. She t to thirty very quickly, and write seven of the square-haers and the words which be made with them. She seems to uand about writiers, and is impatient to "write Fraer." She enjoys pung holes in paper with the stiletto, and I supposed it was because she could examihe result of her work; but we watched her one day, and I was much surprised to find that she imagined she was writing a letter. She would spell "Eva" (a cousin of whom she is very fond) with one hand, then make believe to write it; then spell, "si bed," and write that. She kept this up for nearly an hour. She was (or imagined she utting on paper the things which had ied her. When she had fihe letter she carried it to her mother and spelled, "Fraer," and gave it to her brother to take to the post-office. She had been with me to take letters to the post-office.
She reizes instantly a person whom she has o, and spells the name. Unlike Laura Bridgman, she is fond of gentlemen, aice that she makes friends with a gentleman soohan with a lady.
She is always ready to share whatever she has with those about her, often keeping but very little for herself.
She is very fond of dress and of all kinds of finery, and is very unhappy when she finds a hole in anything she is wearing. She will insist on having her hair put in curl papers when she is so sleepy she scarcely stand.
She discovered a hole in her boot the other m, and, after breakfast, she went to her father and spelled, "Helen new boot Simpson (her brother) buggy store man." One easily see her meaning.
July 3, 1887.
There was a great rumpus downstairs this m. I heard Helen screaming, and ran down to see what was the matter. I found her in a terrible passion. I had hoped this would never happen again. She has been so gentle and obedient the past two months, I thought love had subdued the lion; but it seems he was only sleeping. At all events, there she was, tearing and scratg and biting Viney like some wild thing. It seems Viney had attempted to take a glass, which Helen was filling with stones, fearing that she would break it.
Heleed, and Viried to force it out of her hand, and I suspect that she slapped the child, or did something which caused this unusual outburst of temper. When I took her hand she was trembling violently, and began to cry. I asked what was the matter, and she spelled: "Viney--bad," and began to slap and kick her with renewed violence. I held her hands firmly until she became more calm.
Later Helen came to my room, looking very sad, and wao kiss me. I said, "I ot kiss naughty girl.”
She spelled, "Helen is good, Viney is bad." I said: "You struck Viney and kicked her and hurt her. You were very naughty, and I ot kiss naughty girl." She stood very still for a moment, and it was evident from her face, which was flushed and troubled, that a struggle was going on in her mind. Then she said: "Helen did (does) not love teacher. Helen do love mother. Mother will whip Viney." I told her that she had better not talk about it any more, but think. She khat I was much troubled, and would have liked to stay near me; but I thought it best for her to sit by herself. At the diable she was greatly disturbed because I did, and suggested that "ake tea for teacher." But I told her that my heart was sad, and I didnt feel like eating.
She began to cry and sob and g to me.
She was very much excited when we went upstairs; so I tried to i her in a curious i called a stick-bug. Its the queerest thing I ever saw--a little bundle of fagots fasteogether in the middle. I wouldnt believe it was alive until I saw it move. Eve looked more like a meical toy than a living creature.
But the poor little girl couldnt fix her attention. Her heart was full of trouble, and she wao talk about it.
She said: " bug know about naughty girl? Is bug very happy?" Then, putting her arms round my neck, she said: "I am (will be) good to-morrow. Helen is (will be) good all days." I said, "Will you tell Viney you are very sorry you scratched and kicked her?" She smiled and answered, "Viney () not spell words." "I will tell Viney you are very sorry," I said. "Will you go with me and find Viney?" She was very willing to go, a Viney kiss her, though she didurn the caress. She has been unusually affeate since, and it seems to me there is a sweetness-a soul-beauty in her face which I have not seen before.
July 31, 1887.
Helens pencil-writing is excellent, as you will see from the enclosed letter, which she wrote for her own amusement. I am teag her the braille alphabet, and she is delighted to be able to make words herself that she feel.
She has now reached the question stage of her development. It is "what?" "why?" "when?" especially "why?”
all day long, and as her intelligence grows her inquiries beore insistent. I remember how unbearable I used to find the inquisitiveness of my friends children; but I know now that these questions indicate the childs growing i in the cause of things. The "why?" is the DOOR THROUGH WHICH HE EHE WORLD OF REASON AND REFLE. "How does carpenter know to build house?" "Who put chis in eggs?" "Why is Viney black?" "Flies bite--why?" " flies know not to bite?" "Why did father kill sheep?" Of course she asks many questions that are not as intelligent as these. Her mind isnt more logical than the minds of ordinary children. On the whole, her questions are analogous to those that a bright three-year-old child asks; but her desire for knowledge is so ear, the questions are edious, though they draw heavily upon my meager store of information, and tax my iy to the utmost.
I had a letter from Laura Bridgman last Sunday. Please give her my love, and tell her Helen sends her a kiss. I read the letter at the supper-table, and Mrs. Keller exclaimed: "My, Miss Annie, Helen writes almost as well as that now!" It is true.
August 21, 1887.
We had a beautiful time in Huntsville. Everybody there was delighted with Helen, and showered her with gifts and kisses. The first evening she learhe names of all the people iel, about twenty, I think. The m we were astoo find that she remembered all of them, and reized every one she bbr>99lｉb.</abbr>had met the night before. She taught the young people the alphabet, and several of them learo talk with her.
One of the girls taught her to dahe polka, and a little boy showed her his rabbits and spelled their names for her. She was delighted, and showed her pleasure by hugging and kissing the little fellow, which embarrassed him very much.
We had Helens picture taken with a fuzzy, red-eyed little poodle, who got himself into my ladys good graces by tricks and ing devices known only to dogs with an instinct fetting what they want.
She has talked incessantly since her return about what she did in Huntsville, aice a very decided improvement in her ability to use language. Curiously enough, a drive we took to the top of Monte Sano, a beautiful mountain not far from Huntsville, seems to have impressed her more than anything else, except the wonderful poodle. She remembers all that I told her about it, and in telling her mother REPEATED THE VERY WORDS AND PHRASES I HAD USED IN DESCRIBING IT TO HER. In clusion she asked her mother if she should like to see "very high mountain aiful cloudcaps." I hadnt used this expression. I said, "The clouds touch the mountain softly, like beautiful flowers." You see, I had to use words and images with which she was familiar through the sense of touch. But it hardly seems possible that any mere words should vey to one who has never seen a mountain the fai idea of its grandeur; and I dont see how any one is ever to know what impression she did receive, or the cause of her pleasure in what was told her about it.
All that we do know certainly is that she has a good memory and imagination and the faculty of association.
August 28, 1887.
I do wish things would stop being born! "New puppies," "new calves" and "new babies" keep Helens i in the why and wherefore of things at white heat. The arrival of a new baby at Ivy Greeher day was the occasion of a fresh outburst of questions about the in of babies and live things in general. "Where did Leila get new baby? How did doctor know where to find baby? Did Leila tell doctor to get very small new baby? Where did doctor find Guy and Prince?" (puppies) "Why is Elizabeth Evelyns sister?" etc., etc. These questions were sometimes asked under circumstances which rehem embarrassing, and I made up my mind that something must be done. If it was natural for Helen to ask such questions, it was my duty to ahem. Its a great mistake, I think, to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense, when their growing powers of observation and discriminatioe in them a desire to know about things. From the beginning,
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